1998 Mitsubishi Diamante ES (175)

This week’s Mitsubishi Diamante ES is a mid-size 5-passenger sedan that is obviously in the hunt and eagerly competing in this market. Mitsubishi has only been in the American market since 1982.

My first impressions were that it was nicely elegant. It reminded me of the Lexus LS400, even though the published competition from Lexus is the ES300. Diamante is spacious, comfortable and well appointed inside. It has lots of power with a 3.5 liter V6 and I really liked this car. It was a surprise as was the performance with 0-60 mph acceleration of 8.5 seconds, 1/4-mile performance is 16.5 seconds and it has a top speed of 137 mph.

A few interesting side notes are that more that half of the parts and the final assembly is Adelaide, Australia. Demographically, buyers are about equally split between men & women with median age of 51, 90% are married and 56% are HS grads and household income is about $64,000 per year.

Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price is $27,650 and the model I drove included a 10 disc CD autochanger for $797, the premium package that upgraded the wheels and tires, leather seats and wrapped steering wheel, wood trim, fog lights, power driver seat 2-position memory, tilt front headrests for $2700 and a power sunroof for $963. After destination charges of $470 the total was only $32,580.